DescriptionThis is a commemorative volume containing all of the four issues from 1974 of the British traditionalist journal Studies in Comparative Religion. The compilation has 17 essays or translations from prominent authors such as René Guénon, Lord Northbourne, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Frithjof Schuon, R.W. Austin, Philip Sherrard, Whitall N. Perry, Rama P. Coomaraswamy, Bernard Wall, and others. The volume includes the book reviews, some of which are substantive enough to be essays in their own right, from the original editions of Studies.

This is a commemorative volume containing all of the four issues from 1974 of the British traditionalist journal Studies in Comparative Religion. The compilation has 17 essays or translations from prominent authors such as René Guénon, Lord Northbourne, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Frithjof Schuon, R.W. Austin, Philip Sherrard, Whitall N. Perry, Rama P. Coomaraswamy, Bernard Wall, and others. The volume includes the book reviews, some of which are substantive enough to be essays in their own right, from the original editions of Studies.

F. Clive-Ross was the founder, publisher and editor of the journal Studies in Comparative Religion and its predecessor Tomorrow. For nearly 20 years under Clive-Ross’ guidance, Studies was one of the predominant platforms for discussion of all issues to pertaining to comparative religious studies. Clive-Ross also founded the publishing house, Perennial Books Ltd, and was a trustee of the “World of Islam Festival”. He died in 1981.

World Wisdom has proudly sponsored a new beginning for Studies. All of the original issues are being placed on a custom website: www.studiesincomparativereligion.com. Mr. Clive-Ross's editorials appear in the compilations of Studies in Comparative Religion issues published by World Wisdom:

“One of the most interesting intellectual developments of the 1960s was the publication in England of a periodical called Studies in Comparative Religion.… When it first came across my desk, it had seemed to me merely another gray scholarly journal—an impression that was only strengthened by its stated purpose of presenting essays concerning ‘traditional studies.’ Like many Americans, I was put off by the very word ‘tradition.’ But I pressed on because I had heard that this journal contained some of the most serious thinking of the twentieth century.

“And in fact I quickly saw that its contributors were not interested in the hypothesizing and the marshaling of piecemeal evidence that characterizes the work of most academicians. On close reading, I felt an extraordinary intellectual force radiating through their intricate prose. These men were out for the kill. For them, the study of spiritual traditions was a sword with which to destroy the illusions of contemporary man….

“All I could have said definitely was that they seemed to take metaphysical ideas more seriously than one might have thought possible. It was as though for them such ideas were the most real things in the world. They conformed their thought to these ideas in the way the rest of us tend to conform our thought to material things. Perhaps it was this aspect that gave their essays a flavor that was both slightly archaic and astonishingly fresh at the same time....

“That these writings bring something that has been entirely lacking in Western religious thought is therefore not open to question. But that is not the court at which their work deserves to be judged, nor would they wish it so. Something much more serious is at stake than merely renewing the comparative study of religion throughout the land….”
—Jacob Needleman, San Francisco State College, Editor for The Penguin Metaphysical Library